Homestead Lady, did an awesome write up on our July Class and meeting so I’ve copied and pasted her blog entry with her permission (just FYI Homestead Lady is also the president of Salt Lake County Seed Swap):

The Salt Lake County Seed Swap is hosting Biocentric Bros, Utah’s Own Mushroom growers, as they teach us how to grow mushrooms in Utah both indoors and out. The class will be held at our homestead in South Jordan on July 25th (yes, the day after Pioneer Day) at 7pm and should run about an hour to an hour and a half. Everyone is invited; you do NOT have to be a member of the Swap to attend the class. (Although, you’re very welcome to join – it’s free and has many privileges!) The best way to RSVP (a must to get the address) is to leave me a message and I’ll email you the information you’ll need. You can also go to the Facebook page for the Swap and rsvp on the events page, which will have a description of the class and a place to say you’re coming.

Chase, of Biocentric Bros (yes, they’re actually brothers – I asked; plus they have a good friend helping out), says that they’ll bring kits to get us started, if we’re interested in purchasing some. Each kit is $20 or you can buy three for $50. That night, they’ll have Reishi, Shiitake, King Oyster, Wild Oyster, Elm Oyster and Lion’s Mane available. They originally got into growing mushrooms and, more broadly, gardening as they started thinking more about the health of the food they ate. You can read a write up the Salt Lake Tribune did on them last year here; you can click on the photos for photo credit from the article. Biocentric also has a website but they’re so busy growing awesome things to put much content in – it’s mostly there to give you a way to contact them and access their Facebook page. I follow them on Facebook and they’ll tell you when they have something fun going on – they just got t-shirts made, for instance. Who wouldn’t love a mushroom t-shirt?!

Can I just tell you how excited I am about this class?! These guys did what us homesteaders are so, so, so familiar with – they read books, got some gear and tried it out! Now, several years later, they’re successfully selling at the Salt Lake Farmer’s Market and teaching others how to grow their own. I love people who grow food, don’t you? I’ve wanted to know how to grow mushrooms for so long but was always too intimidated. Every time I think about it I get visions of old growth forests in the mist, but I don’t happen to have any old growth forests in the mist. This is Utah. It’s dry. A bit. Mushrooms are like magic in the world of plants, though; they take dead materials and turn them into useable organics. Plus, there’s all this wonderful growing and “blooming” taking place without a single root or a speck of dirt; genetic tests even seem to indicate that mushrooms are more closely related to animals than they are to plants. For all our knowledge in Botany and Biology, the Fungi kingdom still baffles us on so many levels. Did you know some mushrooms glow in the dark? Yeah, I don’t know that those are legal to sell in Utah; this ain’t California, man.

If you’re in Utah, please feel free to join us; remember, you don’t have to be a member of the Swap to attend classes. I must have a headcount, though so be sure to leave me a message if you’d like to rsvp. See you there!

Thursday, June 27th we will have our monthly meeting and June class. The class will be a home garden irrigation class taught by Jim Emmons, Master Gardener. He’ll talk about options, conservation, plant selection, etc. We will also we’ll have a DIY rain barrel with all of it’s parts laid out and simple instructions on how to make one.

Please join us from 7:00 P.M. – 8:30 P.M. at the Tyler (Midvale) Library on Thursday, June 27, 2013. The library is located at:

“The buried foundations of food and future-food are slowly disappearing. Environmental journalist Simran Sethi takes us beneath our plates to explore the erosion of what we grow and eat. Through an exploration of agricultural biodiversity, seed monocultures and consolidation, and the small-scale farmers who continue to grow much of the world’s food, Simran explains what we all can do to ensure the security and sovereignty of our seed and food.”

Lovely article by Shad Enghilterra in Ingredients Magazine about the Salt Lake County Seed Swap and what we do.

“The group has a seed bank that people are able to trade with or members can borrow from. They do need to give seeds back from the next harvest. Membership in the Seed Swap is simply filling out a form. Classes are usually scheduled for the last Thursday of the month. Everyone is welcome, and there is usually a seed swap at the end of the learning experience.”

The March class will be on techniques for early season gardening, including a section on the end about saving seed from lettuce and the special challenges of saving seed from spinach and how early season growing can minimize them, Clarence Whetten, Advanced Master Gardener, will be teaching. The class will be at the Conservation Garden Park in West Jordan: